Intellectually I know that the cgi budget of HDM s3 has to be spread out very carefully in order to accommodate everything that happens in the third book. I remember having a lot of concerns about the budget for a potential s3 way back when the show first aired seeing the general lack of dæmons walking around due to the budget constraints of animating them all + the witches, the bears, and the arctic scenes. And there’s a lot that happens in the Amber Spyglass that needs cgi to pull off properly. Ergo, i understand that they have to manage their budget carefully, prioritize things where they can, and know where to cut things out where necessary.

However I am still very put out by the fact that the dragonflies don’t seem to be in the series.